Car Accidents

[shorthairsrus]

I hear about all these car accidents and i wonder how many of them are related to texting. I still see texting everyday. The majority of them are 20 something women. They keep throwing staff at duis and yes enough of those boneheads are still driving drunk -- but the ones that are just as scary are these out of the blue --- "they are investigating" or " the charges are pending" freaky accidents during the day that one party isnt in control of the vehicle and it makes you wonder if they are texting. Truck driver watching poon in MN - omg --- hold your self out as a professional driver -- the guy should be hung.

I think the penalty for both DUI and texting should be 100X vs what they are now.


crazy world we live in now --- kids cant play outside and now you cant even drive anymore without worrying about some texter running you over.

 

[Jiffy]

Try riding a motorcycle in this town.....

 

[Mort]

People have no common sense anymore when they get behind the wheel of a car...they have the mentality thinking its not going to happen to them and that have it under control...and thats a crock of manure of denial of an excuse...you gotta be 200x more time alert FOR the other boneheads on the road anymore.

 

[Bfishn]

After 10 years of riding, i sold my motorcycle a couple years ago and haven't regret it once, it just wasn't worth it anymore. Waaay to many people not paying any attention at all. I have several buddies that have been rear ended just sitting at stop lights the last couple years.

 

[Maddog]

Through the years I have been rear ended 3 times.
Each time I was pulling away from a lighted intersection. Each time the guy behind me ran into me within less than 1 car length after I pulled away after the light turned green. 2 males in their 30's or so and one young gal who was probably 17.

Guess my trucks just aren't big enough to be seen. Is it drugs, alcohol, texting . ???

In town, I purposely always take the road less traveled. There are also too many Nascar driver wannabees out there.

 

[dean nelson]

crazy world we live in now --- kids cant play outside and now you cant even drive anymore without worrying about some texter running you over.

Yes a world where there is half as many accidents as there was 40 years ago is a world that is just too horrible to comprehend!

 

[JayKay]

I really feel the bigger problem - is accountability. I hate to sound like some old preacher, or whatever. But these days people just don't ever accept responsibility.

Everything that happens, is somebody else's fault.

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Yes a world where there is half as many accidents as there was 40 years ago is a world that is just too horrible to comprehend!

Given that there are a more vehicles on the road than in 1980, and people are concentrated more and more in urban areas, I'd like to see your statistic.

 

[Walleye_Chaser]

Yeah it's insane how many people are staring at their phones while driving

 

[BrokenBackJack]

It's an "all about me" world we live in now. They don't give a rats ass about the other person!

 

[Fly Carpin]

Given that there are a more vehicles on the road than in 1980, and people are concentrated more and more in urban areas, I'd like to see your statistic.

There's only been an increase of about 50 million licensed drivers on the road from the beginning of Dean's timeline to now. A paltry number.

Using fatal accidents as our metric, as it's the only reliable number out there for the entire nation, the motor vehicle fatality rate has decreased from approx. 51,000 in 1980 to approx. 36,750 in 2018. I mean, 72% is basically half, right?

 

[Bfishn]

I would have to assume there are far more crashes now, but because of seat-belt laws, airbags, overall vehicle safety etc. the deaths have reduced...going by deaths only tell part of the story.

 

[Fly Carpin]

I would have to assume there are far more crashes now, but because of seat-belt laws, airbags, overall vehicle safety etc. the deaths have reduced...going by deaths only tell part of the story.

Totally agree. Was unable to find any reliable 40 year data sets on non-fatal collisions. But mostly I just like arguing with Dean

 

[Brian Renville]

I'm not so sure frequency of car crashes can't be put in the same category as weather, violence, protesting, crime, politics, the environment..... Every time something happens somewhere on the planet there is a good chance it's going to immediately get shoved into our faces. 20 dead fish in Australia must mean a global plague is on the way. Bird falls from the sky, must have flown through vape smoke. A tornado takes out a farmhouse, must be human interferrence or lack of with the weather. Hurricanes are stronger now than they have ever been even though weve only been measuring in less than 1% of our own existence. 20 pissed off people in Berkely Ca and THE COUNTRY IS IN TURMOIL! Meh. I don't there there are moer crashes now at least not per capita, I don't think there are less though either. I do however think a larger % of them are from people haveing a screen in front of their face. I'm guilty at times and I need to quit that shit.

 

[shorthairsrus]

Car crashes are exponentially going up --- just like your insurance rates:

ere is a breakdown of the number of reported crashes over a five-year period
Every year, NHTSA issues a Motor Vehicle Crash Overview

• 2011: 5,338,000
• 2012: 5,615,000
• 2013: 5,687,000
• 2014: 6,064,000
• 2015: 6,296,000

The U.S. pays about $230.6 billion in car accident costs annually – an average of $820 per U.S. citizen. Note that in the last five years, the number of accidents has risen by almost one million. Unless something changes, the odds are certainly stacked against drivers today.

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How do you fix the screen issue --- off for one in the car --off for all technology based on MPH. End of sitting in the passenger seat playing with your phone.

dui - increase the penalty to a min of 10 years in a cold wet jail cell and hard labor.

 

[dean nelson]

I really feel the bigger problem - is accountability. I hate to sound like some old preacher, or whatever. But these days people just don't ever accept responsibility.

Everything that happens, is somebody else's fault.

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Given that there are a more vehicles on the road than in 1980, and people are concentrated more and more in urban areas, I'd like to see your statistic.

You can find the statistics they are everywhere. Here's one on fatial crashes for 1950 to 2016.

 

[JayKay]

Fatalities per 100,000 have decreased, due - I'm sure - to seat belt laws and safer vehicles.

This thread is about accidents. My thoughts were about accidents - not necessarily fatal ones.

I think that we all can agree - having phones in hand while driving, causes distraction.

If you are taking umbrage at the notion that the young are the only culprits in crashes, I'll readily admit that the elderly cause their share too, although not usually because they're texting.

 

[BrokenBackJack]

Yes us old geezers tend to putz and look around more, some don't use their blinkers which really pisses me off.
Defensive driving is the new norm!

 

[AR-15]

Have to get the Feds or the state and the cell phone Co. to make the phones so they don't work in a vehicle when it's running.

 

[dean nelson]

Fatalities per 100,000 have decreased, due - I'm sure - to seat belt laws and safer vehicles.

This thread is about accidents. My thoughts were about accidents - not necessarily fatal ones.

I think that we all can agree - having phones in hand while driving, causes distraction.

If you are taking umbrage at the notion that the young are the only culprits in crashes, I'll readily admit that the elderly cause their share too, although not usually because they're texting.

Yeah it's hard to get the crash rate that's not tied to deaths. Best I saw was one but it only went back to 1990. But that was more or less pre cell phone and was 6.5 million crashes. Numbers since then have been pretty much flat going as high as 6.8 million to as low as 5.3 million back in 2011. If anything there's been a slow decrease over time not increase and when you factor in just how many more vehicles are on the road now days vs on the road in 1990..... percentage-wise the roads are safer now vs then.

 

[Rowdie]

I was in Germany in thru 80's. To get a drivers license there was a month long class, and $1000, in the 80's! If you got a DUI, say goodbye to it, probably for life. The thing is there, if you drink and drive, you'll probably have a serious wreck, as everyone drives like its a Indy 500 race, and there isn't a 100 yard straight stretch of road anywhere. Intersections have 3 to 8 roads coming together and some are one ways and others not, and there are maybe two or 3 centers to the intersection. So its not easy to drive impaired over there like it is here. I'd be willing to bet that everyone, or at least 99% on this site has driven over the limit at least once in their lives.